Adventures in Reality

X-Men and LGBT

This post might seem controversial to some readers, but I would prefer to look at the topic of sexual orientation and gender/ trans-gender issues with an objectivity devoid of so-called moral or religious judgment. After all, being outside the LGBT community, doesn’t give me any right or qualification to judge anyone who knows what life of persons of the ‘third gender’ is like.

I’ve always been a fan of the Marvel Comic story “X-Men”, and other stories where central characters have super powers or super-natural power.Yet, as with the X-Men , these super-human beings who result from certain scientific experimentation are viewed with suspicion and mistrust by the general population of ‘normal’ human society. The discrimination seems to stem from a sense of fear of something different, unknown, potentially unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Yet, among them are children and teenagers who, realizing they are different because they possess characteristics or powers, others don’t have, detach themselves from their playmates, friends and families for fear of being discovered, ostracized, stigmatized, or persecuted, and labelled ‘freaks’ and ‘mutants’. They also fear harming others with the powers they do not understand and have no control over.

Charles Xavier, an X-Man himself, tries to give these youngsters a chance by setting up a ‘school’ where these super human beings might learn to accept their difference, control their various powers, use them to protect society at large. Despite that, he and those like him stay on the fringes of society in an extraordinary environment tailored to train and contain potentially volatile and dangerous beings. Society remains suspicious and uneasy about accepting these ‘mutants’ as human beings with added capabilities.

Speaking about, ‘mutants’ brings to mind the book Chrysalids by John Wyndham, published in 1955. In this book, the theme is similar, the rejection and suspicion of those who are different or ‘unusual’. Like the X-men, these ‘mutants’ are out-law-ed, ostracized and condemned.

Human biological mutation is the result of human experimentation and abuse of power. In X-Men, failed scientific experimentation involving genetics to ‘create’ the ultimate ‘human weapon’ leads to this. In Chrysalids, it was the apparent result of nuclear disaster.

Arguably, the third gender(LGBT) is the consequence of our technological progress and development. People of LGBT orientation may have existed hundreds of years ago, been suppressed or seen as ‘caricatures of humanity’. But, we have yet to discover the mystery of their existence.

Still, considering our past and current environment, where we consume chemically contaminated food, ourselves being more exposed to radiation, than we realize, and a combination of numerous other factors e.g. air and water pollution; can society be sure that the rise in the number of LGBT persons is not of our own creation?

Science has tampered with genetics and even achieved the means to predict the sex of the un-born child, yet can the possible errors made in the name of scientific advancement and medical benefit be over looked, ignored and excused for causing the suffering of those perceived as different from the norms of society at large. Are those of the third gender not a unique community of human beings, whose existence we know little about and fail to understand?